The use of fluids to facilitate drilling and extraction is well known in the oil and gas industry. Fluid storage facilities are needed on-site to provide a store of fluid for applications such as hydraulic drilling and fracking. Steel industrial tanks are often used to store drilling fluid or mud because they are robust with long life spans. These storage tanks can be horizontal or vertical. However, whether horizontal or vertical, these steel industrial storage tanks are large and are difficult to transport. In addition, the popularity of vertical tanks is increasing because they occupy less land space compared to a horizontal tank of identical interior volume.
Ordinarily, large steel industrial tanks are transported by loading them onto a large tractor trailer through the use of a crane or similar lifting device. The tank then needs to be carefully secured to the trailer and transported to the destination. Often height clearance on freeways and roads is limited, and tanks loaded onto conventional flatbed trailers exceed allowable height limits. In order to obtain the required clearance, these industrial tanks are loaded onto dropdeck or even double dropdeck trailers having flatbeds lower than the axels of the trailer and semi-tractor truck. Unloading steel industrial tanks from a dropdeck or double dropdeck trailer is challenging and requires either using a crane to lift the tank off the trailer or using a winch to drag the tank off of the trailer, causing needless wear and tear on both the tank and the trailer.
Further, often the tanks are delivered to remote sites that do not have a crane available to lift the tanks from the trailer. Thus, suppliers of tanks are required to haul the trailer with a semi-tractor truck equipped with a crane. The requirement for such a specialized tractor truck that is equipped with a crane increases the weight of the semi rig, lowers fuel efficiency, and therefore increases the cost of tank delivery.
Additionally, dropdeck and double dropdeck trailers have longer wheelbases and lower ground clearance than traditional flatbed trailers and are inherently more difficult to maneuver. The low ground clearance of dropdeck and double dropdeck trailers is also particularly challenging in the off road conditions typically encountered in oil and gas fields, where large steel storage containers are needed. Often, such trailers can bottom out on and strike the uneven ground causing damage to the underside of the trailers.
Many businesses rent these tanks as opposed to purchasing them outright. The tanks are stored in a central location. Then when rented, the tanks are transported from the central location to a work site for a particular drilling operation and then collected upon completion of drilling operations and transported back to the central location. Thus, there is a need to deliver and collect the tanks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
When tanks are delivered to a remote drilling location, the rental company faces large fuel costs for a variety of reasons. First, the delivery company incurs a loss of fuel economy by transporting a heavy dropdeck trailer in addition to the weight of the tank itself. Second the delivery company incurs a loss of fuel economy by either separately delivering a crane system, or utilizing a semi-tractor truck equipped with a crane system. Third, the delivery company incurs a loss of fuel economy upon the return trip for hauling a heavy unloaded trailer and crane (either on the truck itself or by way of a separate vehicle).
Collecting a tank suffers from similar efficiency problems for a rental company. First, the rental company has to haul an empty trailer to the particular location of the tank. In addition, the rental company has to deliver a crane to the tank location in order to place the tank on the trailer. Finally, the rental company has to make the return trip to the central location including both the trailer and the crane.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide a tank transport system and method for transporting industrial tanks in such a way to not use a trailer or a crane, and allow for lifting a tank into a vertical position upon delivery and lowering a tank to a vertical transportation position upon collection. It would further be advantageous to provide a tank transport system and method to transport and deliver a storage tank without the use of a trailer. It would be further advantageous to provide a tank transport system and method to transport and deliver a storage tank without the need for a crane. It would be further advantageous to provide a tank transport system and method to transport and deliver a storage tank which provides ample ground clearance to travel on unpaved roads. It would be further advantageous to provide a tank transport system that is low weight. It would be further advantageous to provide a tank transport system and method that has a minimal amount of moving parts to provide for quick assembly and disassembly of components of the system to allow the practice of the various methods. It would be further advantageous to provide a tank transport system allowing the tank dimensions to be maximized for interior volume while still meeting the dimensional requirements for transportation. It would be further advantageous to provide a tank transport system which is easy to use, and relatively cost efficient.